A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to dispensing systems for such things as vending machines, and in particular, to increasing the capacity and selection of a vending machine with compartments accessible by a sliding door.
B. Problems in the Art
A variety of vending machine dispensing systems exist. For example, canned soft drink machines generally use a gravity feed system. A customer pushes a button and one can of the selected brand and/or flavor is released from a row of the same brand and/or flavor and dropped to an access opening. The customer generally does not actually see the different available choices but relies on an indicator (such as a picture, trademark, or logo) at or near each of the buttons.
Other machines, for example candy vending machines, utilize a glass front so the customer can see the choices. Drive mechanisms then operate to move a particular choice to a drop off location accessible by the customer.
In both of the above systems, security against a customer attempting to reach and take more than the single selected item is accomplished by having the access area away from or segregated from the remaining inventory in the machine.
Another type of vending system utilizes a plurality of trays or what will be called buckets that, like a ferris wheel, move in a path so that they sequentially can rotate to a window or door. Many of these machines utilize a window, and in fact combine a window with a door, to allow a customer to not only see the various selections available, but also to verify that the customer's particular selection is moved to the door. The customer usually operates a control to move the buckets past the door until the bucket with the desired item is aligned with the door. Once appropriate money is given to the machine, the door can then be opened and the customer can access the selected product. The individual buckets are segregated from each other to disallow access to other buckets when the door is opened. The door is also configured to limit access to a single bucket.
As with previously discussed vending systems, it is generally advantageous for the customer to be able to actually see the product choices being offered. This is even more indicated if the vending machine offers a wide variety of types of products, as opposed to a soda vending machine, for example, which offers the same sized containers and the interior contents of which are not viewable by the customer anyway. Primary examples of why actual visual inspection of an item is desired are such things as sandwiches, fruit, and the like. It is generally desirable from both the customer's and vendor's standpoint that the actual available products be viewable. Furthermore, if a wide variety of products is desired, it is impractical to constantly change signs and/or symbols on the front of the machine when reloading product and it may not even be possible to effectively identify each available product to the customer. Furthermore, in bucket-type machines, once an item is removed from a bucket, it will remain empty until the vending machine operator reloads the bucket. Therefore, a visual verification of the contents, or lack thereof, of a bucket is important so that the customer does not select an empty bucket.
Another very important consideration with vending machines is maximization of use of the machine. For example, with a soda dispensing machine, a substantial amount of the interior of the housing of the machine can be filled with product. This reduces the labor involved in returning to and reloading the machine and it can also increase the number of selections for an individual machine. While soda dispensing machines are fairly maximized as far as product utilization, such things as candy dispensing machines are limited to an extent by the equipment required for dispensing the products. Motors and the like take up room in the machine and therefor dictate to some extent the number and size of rows and columns that can be fit into the machine.
A similar but also different problem exists with bucket-type machines. Not only does the structure of the bucket mechanism dictate to some extent how many buckets can be put into the machine, the fact that each bucket contains a single selection also effects how many selections are available. Because bucket machines are used for a variety of different types of products, the sizes of the products sometimes vary somewhat significantly. Therefore, a generic bucket or tray is usually used which can be much bigger than some of the products which are vended. This results in less than a maximization of space. Moreover, security reasons, primarily the ability to stop access to other buckets than the one selected, dictate that the door accessing the bucket be as small as possible, thereby also sometimes limiting the size of the buckets themselves.
Some multiple selection vending machines, referred to as carousel machines, utilize rotating horizontally positioned carousels that have radial moveable dividers to accommodate different sized products in each carousel. Each carousel, each rotating at its own vertical level, would therefore have its own door. Either the size of the door for each carousel must be variable for different sized objects, or a standard sized door would limit the amount of adjustment of size of each segment of the carousel. Attempts have even been made to vertically split a horizontal carousel tray into two levels. Additional doors would either have to be utilized or the travel of each door controlled to open one half the distance. In any event, there would be multiple doors if the carousel machine has more than one carousel.
A proposed solution at maximizing the number of selections in bucket type machines involves the use of a single outer window/door to view the products in the various buckets. Each bucket can be subdivided into what will be called sub-buckets by utilizing dividers. In the particular machine being discussed, however, behind the outer window/door are positioned a plurality of sub-doors; one blocking access to each sub-bucket. Once the customer decides on a particular item in a particular sub-bucket, the whole bucket is rotated to line up with the outer window/door, the outer window/door is raised, and then the plurality of secondary doors, each correlated to each sub-bucket, is presented to the customer. The correct money is deposited and a button or control is then pushed for the desired sub-bucket and a motor, one for each sub-door, opens the selected sub-door for the particularly selected sub-bucket.
It can therefore be seen that the need to maximize space in rotating buckets or rotating carousel type machines has been acknowledged in the art. To date, however, attempts to maximize space have either been primarily related to horizontal carousels with adjustable shelves, each shelf requiring its separate door, or using a main door and then separately motorized sub-doors for a sub-divided bucket.
In either case, the plurality of doors involves multiplication of moving parts and thus adds cost and complexity. Some of these attempts require interchangeability of different sized doors or even control of amount of opening of the doors. This would take time to do depending on which items exist in the machine and which items will be subsequently re-stocked into the machine once vended.
There is therefore a real need in the art for an improvement in vending machine systems as to maximizing the amount of products and the selection of products for vending systems particularly those which need or allow the customer to visually review each and every selection in the machine. It is therefore a principle object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method to solve or improve over the problems and deficiencies in the art.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are:
1. Flexibility with respect to the number of items that can be placed in the vending machine as well as the number of different selections that are available.
2. Flexibility with respect to whether one item or multiple items are available and selectable from a single bucket.
3. Utilization of one large access door that enables access to an entire bucket unless intentionally limited.
4. Allowing wider buckets for a single machine because of the ability to subdivide individual buckets.
5. Maintenance of security as against a customer gaining access to other buckets or non-selected portions of the same bucket.
6. Economical advantage in that it does not require additional drive motors or doors.
7. Durability over repeated operation.
8. Cost effectiveness.
9. Reliability in operation and selection.
10. Increased capacity for the machine.
These and other options, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.